Times-Mirror and Independent newspapers to merge

Peter Arundel, President & CEO of Times Community News (L), and Bill Dean, President & CEO of M.C. Dean (R), stand in front of the offices of The Loudoun Independent newspaper in Ashburn on June 17, 2010 - the day the merger between The Loudoun Times-Mirror and The Independent was announced. TCN owns the Times-Mirror, while M.C. Dean owns The Independent - which will continue to be published. Courtesy photo.

The media landscape in Loudoun itself made news June 17, as a newly combined multimedia news franchise entered the scene and instantly transformed the dynamics of news content and distribution.

Peter Arundel, President and CEO of Times Community News, announced that Loudoun’s two largest newspapers – the Loudoun Times-Mirror and the Loudoun Independent – are merging their online and print operations to create a unique multimedia offering to serve Loudoun residents and advertisers.

“This is a watershed moment in the long history of journalism in Loudoun,” said Arundel. “It’s a game-changer that transforms the existing media dynamics of the county.”

Arundel assumes full management of the two newspapers. The Times-Mirror will continue to be published on Wednesday, while the Independent will publish on Friday.

The agreement was announced by privately-owned ArCom Publishing Inc., which owns Times Community News. The Times-Mirror is one of several publications across Northern Virginia that is owned and operated by TCN.

The Independent is owned by M. C. Dean of Dulles, a leading engineering and integration firm. As part of the agreement between ArCom Publishing and M. C. Dean, William H. Dean – President and CEO of the company – will become an investor in ArCom Publishing, and will hold a seat on its Board of Directors.

“Peter Arundel is a premier publisher who understands the business, evolving demographics and where the media industry is going. The merger of the Times-Mirror and the Independent is a timely and strategic move that makes sense on various levels. This collaboration will allow us to more fully develop a comprehensive, multilayered media model that fuses high-quality news content with advanced technology.”

Arundel also announced that Nicholas Graham has been appointed as the new executive editor for both the Times-Mirror and the Independent, overseeing both the print and website news and editorial operations.

Graham’s previous position was editor-at-large at the Times-Mirror. Before that, he was a writer at the Loudoun Easterner newspaper in 2009. Graham served as a senior communications executive at both AOL, LLC of Dulles, and also at search engine Ask.com, a unit of IAC Corp. Graham was also a senior Capitol Hill aide from 1993-1999.

“Our new diversified media company will define excellence in 21st Century,” Arundel said. “It will become Loudoun’s ‘one-stop shop’ for premium local news content, and offer a personalized sales force tailored to its advertisers to continue market leadership.”

The combined audience reach of both print publications is over 135,000 residents across Loudoun. The http://www.LoudounTimes.com and www.LoudounI.com websites reach tens of thousands more Loudoun residents.

The Independent will maintain its current strong base of advertisers, its http://www.LoudounI.com website operation, and serve as an independent editorial voice in Loudoun County. Amy Burns will continue in her role as Publisher of the Independent, which was founded in 2005.

Mr. Phillips, your comment about Mr. Graham being a member of the LCRC shows your one sided view of everything. So what if he is, do you not have political views? In a time when the entire main stream media is nothing more then a puppet for the liberal government it would be refreshing to me to see at least one publication that would look at the other side of the story. While I will not stoop as low as Mark I would say that should you take your liberal views and go away I for one would’nt miss you.

After working for Arthur Arundel for 9 years in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I never thought he would end up in my old house in Ashburn. What a switch!!! Glad to see you are still around Brett. And as for the “guy” not a man, that said for Brett to crawl back in his grave, you are sick.

I have actually worked for Leesburg TOday & The Times. The Times for over Ten Years. I know a great deal about advertising and information published. I can state this fact: Leesburg Today is far Superior as far as editorial, loyalty to advertisers and employees. In General a much better “Community Paper” Thumbs up to Leesburg Today!

Lately it seems like the photographs in the Loudoun Independent are better than the Times and the reporting in the Times is better than the Independent. Perhaps the two teams should combine to help each other and improve both papers.

The Times needs the online technical expertise and the Independant needs the Times circulation. Eventually online will be the favored delivery vs. print so who knows if these two will survive.

Prediction: AOL re-invents itself and becomes a big player in the buy outs of all the local print and online media companies like these after they’ve established loyal readers and have run out of money. Then Amy Burns and company can retire millionares.

there we were, reading about the business of the merger and making comments when a couple of fellas just couldn’t resist making ugly comments. my dad taught me that no one pays any real attention to this kind of speech or writing except to notice how poorly it reflects on whoever says/writes it. seems he had a leg up on these guys. please, fellows, write in a genteel manner and grind your axes in some other way.

I am somewhat appalled that the Times-Mirrors’ comment moderators allow statements such as Mark E. Marks’s to appear here. One would hope for a civilized discussion on matters such as these- calling for someone to “crawl back into your box and die” adds nothing.

Hopefully following this merger readers can expect a bit more decorum in comment threads.

Nice to see Brett Phillips, former owner and publisher of the competing Leesburg Today, rise from the grave to make unsubstantiated accusations against the Independent and Times-Mirror.

Anybody EVER audit Leesburg Today’s claimed circulation, Brett? And should we go back through old issues when you were at that paper and discuss some of the lies you printed about Dale Myers and other political figures? You made a joke of “impartiality” and have zero credibility.

I assume you can produce audited circulation figures to substantiate your claimed penetration of 135,000 Loudoun households? Also, isn’t Nicholas Graham a member of the Loudoun County Republican Committee? How does that square with the claim of excellence, which in journalism usually has something to do with impartiality?

I’m sure glad that Amy Burns will remain the Independent’s publisher. Hope they still ‘hold their own’ as a distinct entity in this whole shebang. i’ve loved the Independent since I first laid eyes on it!

I sure hope that the Faith Section grows along with these two local newspapers.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.[Ephesians 2:10]

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